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Since my main strategy is Baton Pass why not do same thing with this thing.
After stat boost from whatever,
Passing By: Unburden ADAMANT
Air Balloon
128HP 252ATK 128SPEED
HJK/CLOSE Combat
Blaze Kick
Stone Edge/Earthquake
Pursuit
With Air Balloon it will avoid spikes and T spikes for safety the drill is to get boost and gets hit to Blow the Air Balloon for Unburden usage.
I do same thing with Sceptile with no Speed EV since Sceptile is naturally fast (Tail Glow Pass). The Plus it has Giga Drain which is a bonus for HP recovery while Hitmonlee does not have Drain Punch

STAB Conundrums - Hitmonlee Edition
Hitmonlee has access to some incredible Moves. When it comes to STAB, HJK is unmatched for power. However, 90% accuracy and 50% recoil on a miss can deter many a player if they keep getting psychologically scarred by it. Ghost Types entering on a good prediction will guarantee 'lee becomes a cracked glass cannon.

Even if you go for the more reliable Close Combat, you may also run into Pranksters who throw up a Sub and toss Status Effects at you like a monkey with so much poo. In this rare, yet possible, case, Double Kick can hit through a Sub, but is far less reliable on power.

Countering Hitmonlee
Learning what you'll meet is key:
-Fake Out will barely faze Inner Focus Pokemon like Crobat, Lucario, and non-DW Dragonite and will also aid Steadfast Pokemon like Gallade and, again, Lucario. However, most will only have 1 chance to 1-shot Unburden 'lee.
-Pranksters with Substitute up before 'lee enters and Status Effects in their arsenal will screw with Unburden 'lee.
-Reckless-HJK is rendered useless against Ghost Types. Pressure is available to 3 of them, making HJK and Close Combat less viable in the long term due to 10 and 5 PP, respectively.
-Cof' has immunity to 'lee's STAB and Fake Out. Add high Defense and it can wear 'lee down hard.
-Trick Room can bog Unburden 'lee down. Your potentially-600 Speed becomes the absolute lowest Speed in a Trick Room situation. Slowbro, Eviolite-clops, Dusknoir, Heatproof-EQ-Imprison-Bronzong, Claydol, and Cof' are the most likely to do so against 'lee due to high Defense and neutral-or-better resistance to 'lee's STAB.

Other options
Double edge comes from third gen. Though it doesn't seem legal, tyrogue can learn it. And rarely, the ability will shift when evolved, at a 10% rate,(I actually did it.) meaning that it can get reckless and double edge, a 144 power move, with reckless. However, seeing that it relies on a sash a lot of the time, the only time you could use it was without one.
Mega kick is a mega kick in the face. Low accuracy, but you could use that as a filler on a gravity team... Though that will also force you not to use HJK. Like I said-filler.
Sucker punch is another great option made by many. Sadly, illegal with unburden. Although, it does make an awesome surprise hit that people won't expect, as most will be used to unburden now.

Reckless Hi Jump Kick really does hit like a nuke. I'm not even kidding. Stone Edge synergizes fantastically. I used to run Sucker Punch to hit Ghosts that try to block Rapid Spin, but I found it a waste of time since they usually burn first and ask questions later, making Sucker Punch useless. Hitting them with Foresight on the switch and knocking them out with Hi Jump Kick is far more effective 9 out of 10 times.

A twist on the classic Hitmonlee set. This one takes full advantage of Reckless with a set carefully played to keep him alive and kicking for the duration of the battle. Hi Jump Kick is his signature move, and with Reckless, it's gonna hurt like a Stoutland(F). Because of this predictable move, the opponent won't hesitate to switch in their Ghost type. To counter this, you have the option of using Bulk Up or Foresight, the latter inspired by the tricky Hitmontop set back in 4th Gen UU. Bulk Up to boost your Atk considerably so that you can nail Ghosts with Sucker Punch. Foresight will make Ghosts vulnerable to your Fight STAB, which WILL hurt even Cofagrigus considerably. Double Kick is stupid. But it's a Sub Breaker utility move so it has merit. Stone Edge is your last move to hit Flying and Bug types with it, while Earthquake hits Poison Types that resist your Fighting move.

A different way to play with Unburden. Unburden Hitmonlee is extremely fragile to status and Ghosts. Because of this, Foresight makes a reappearance again as it invaluably removes the Ghost's immunity to Hi Jump Kick. If you Foresight a Ghost on the switch, you can then proceed to blast them with Hi Jump Kick. Status users like Dusclops or Cofagrigus will make Hitmonlee's job even easier as you can 2HKO them with HJK while they foolishly Burn you with Will-o-Wisp, activating Lum Berry, activating Unburden.

Hitmonlee can also act as a back up sweeper when your team needs it. Switch in on a status and then sweep with that speed.

Counters and checks: Of the pokemon out there, Weezing is the prime check to Hitmonlee, resisting his STAB, immunity to Earthquake, and massive Defense renders Stone Edge and Blaze Kick useless against him while he can burn him back with Will-o-wisp. Sableye can counter Hitmonlee considerably if he switches in on a HJK and then Trick a Scarf on him if Hitmonlee didn't already kill himself. Tricking a Scarf will render him incapable of activating Unburden, although why you would give him a boosting speed item like Choice Scarf...scratch that. Trick a Specs onto him and he's useless.

Last edited by Black Murder Heavangelon; 14th December 2011 at 7:19 AM.

Hi Jump Kick hits hard but recoils you. Close Combat is an alternative but decrease your defensive stat but you can use it with White Herb and it abused Unburden. Blaze Kick hits hard, have high-critical ratio and may burn your opponent. Mega Kick hurt even harder than Blaze Kick but have no side effect. Stone Edge for Staraptor and Sigyliph that will try to wall you. Sucker Punch hit Alakazam while Earthquake is a coverage.

Hitmonlee, the Kicking pokemon, this pokemon has been around from the start. Overall, it's like many other pokemon, it has great attack and special defense. It's other stats thought, well let's not go to their abyssmal numbers. Basically, it's a fighting glass cannon that hits hard, fast, and dies off when the opponent realizes that priority moves will do it in.

Abilities:

Limber- Prevents paralysis on Hitmonlee, but is a horrible ability for it. No one even uses thunder wave or glare that much, and moves like discharge, thunderbolt, etc. will kill it off if you try to switch in.

Reckless- Hitmonlee's second best ability as moves with recoil damage will get a power boost at the cost of more recoil damage. Ideal for high jump kick, double-edge, and jump kick. But, you'll probably only be using high jump kick to do mass damage anyway.

Unburden- Doubles Hitmonlee's speed once it uses it's hold item giving it three great stats...wait, GAMEFREAK had the idea to improve a gen 1 pokemon! This is just sweet, once this ability is released the term glass cannon is promoted to glass rocket.

Basically, Fake Out is to get you the first hit and activate Unburden which will be your bread and butter. Afterwards, being the frail pokemon it is endure will get it to the necessary 1HP to max Reversal and do mass damage. The other move is so ghost types don't get the switch and stop your sweep. Blaze Kick hits the likes of skarmory, while Stone Edge and Earthquake have a variety of coverage.

Here the Bruce Lee imitating mon is going to cause more car wrecks than the blues brothers and that was unintentional. High Jump Kick gets massive STAB and gains Reckless and Life Orb boosts to boot. Blaze Kick is your way of dealing with dual poison/grass types and the like as well as Skarmory. Double-Edge is boosted as well by Life Orb. Sucker Punch is for priority because who isn't going to launch an attack on the glass cannon, really? Mach Punch and Bullet Punch are there to act as priority if you don't like Sucker Punch. Liechi Berry should be used if you want the mon to be faster without the mass recoil it may inflict.

Double/Triple Battles:
Oh the pokemanity why would you use Hitmonlee in doubles or triples? It's so frail that earthquake will drop it faster than lee dropped norris. Plus, fake can only make one pokemon flinch for one...count it ONE time. If your going to use it, then have tailwind up, use the BruceMonlee set and go happy with you high jump kicks because it won't last long in that environemt. Sorry lee, stick to the singles matches kid.

Counters:
Where to start? Well, let's see ghost types can easily stop the mojo gained by unburden if you don't have proper coverage. Priority can also be a problem as it is frail defensively and mach punch and extremespeed would do some damage. Will-O-Wisp also cripples the offensive of Hitmonlee, so tying in with ghosts, Ninetails seems like it falls into crippling it or any burn effective move. Trick Room can also offset Hitmonlee because while it's not the fastest, there are things slower than it that are way more dangerous: Reuniclus, Elektross, etc.

Partners:
Let's see... ANYTHING to get rid of the listed above. A pokemon with flash fire will ruin any attempt to cripple Hitmonlee. So, effective partners would be Heatran, Arcanine, Chandelure, or Ninetailes. For the reckless sets either tailwind support would be appreciated as its speed does not help it's case. Thunderous, Tornadus, or Whimsicott can be used to set up tailwind with prankster.

Thanks, to the awesome artist and friend, zek4040 for this AMAZING banner.

I would like to point out that Unburden increases your speed by 2x, while Choice Scarf only increases it by 1.5x.

"Open your mouth too wide, and your ears close."

Do you wish you could do things like in the anime?
Do you wish you could dodge behind a rock to avoid an attack?
Do you wish that you could use the arena to stop your opponents cold?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, the Pokemon Anime Style Battling League could be for you!

^I know, but it's still best to invest in some speed. I've seen timid scarf Latios and Gengar multiple times before, it reaches 525 speed. To outrun it, you'd need at least 263 speed(with unburden, that's 526).

With and adamant nature, that would be 212 speed EVs.

Let's say that it's a scarf, jolly base 100 speed pokemon(Hydreigon is a little slower, but it's common and close enough) that you're facing. That would mean it has 492 speed. To outrun that with an adamant nature, you need 247 speed(496 after boost). That's less EVs, but you'll still need 148 speed EVs to outrun that.

Or, are you going to give it jolly just so you can move some from speed to bulk? If you do that, you be sacrificing a good amount of power.

Hitmonlee...
The best thing this pokemon do is the combination of HJK or JK and reckless... They are recoil moves but only recoil if they don't hit and they have 90% and 95% accuracy respectively. They won't recoil much often and still get the reckless boost! Sweet!
On other hand, the unburden, priority move plus an appropriate gem combo is good too cz this pokemon have speed issues that this strategy helps to get rid of it. it will double your 87 Base speed wich is good. The factor that switching out will reset the speed is not really a problem cz you're not going to survive long anyways.
Since unburden is a DW ability only it might not be available to your hitmonlee so reckless is the better ability. 87 speed is not that bad but unfortunately it means that you'll be outrun by many pokemon and yet you're not slow enough to be effective under trick room. But with some speed invested IVs and a speed boosting nature and using priority moves can overcome this problem.

Hitmonlee@Life orb
Ability: Reckless
Nature: Adamant / Jolly
Evs: 252 ATT/ 252 SPD/ 4 Sp DEF
Moves:
-HJK / JK
-Earthquake / Blaze kick
-Bulk up / Endure
-Pursuit / Thief / Bullet punch / Reversal
For this set, It's probably to have a jolly hitmonlee just to make it hit faster cz it will not last too much in battle. HJK and JK is what you favor accuracy or power but in my oppinion 5% additional accuracy are not worth the 30 BP loss not counting STAB. Earthquake is there for being a good physical move and blaze kick for better coverage specialy against levitating ghosts. If you have the courage to set up use bulk up it will raise attack and defense making it bulkier but if you think that hitmonlee is too fragile to set up safely use endure, it will be a surprise if your opponent thinks that he have KOed you! You'll get an extra turn to do damage with reversal but it needs some prediction. Hitmonlee have some descent disruptive options: Pursuit for fleeing pokemon, Thief for incapacitating a sweeper or a tank (Virtually any pokemon that relies on it's item) and bullet punch is a sweet priority move.

Hitmonlee@life orb
Ability: Limber
Nature: adamant / Jolly
Evs: 252 ATT / 252 SPD/ 4 Sp DEF
Moves:
-Brick break / Close combat / Mach punch
-Bulk up / Endure
-Earthquake / Blaze kick
-Thief / Pursuit / Reversal
Same as the above set with the main difference being the fighting type move you want to use. Since you don't have reckless HJK and JK are not that appealing. Brick break is reliable and have good power and have the potential to remove the screens from your opponent side os the field, very handy. Close combat is strong and reliable but have the downside effect of lowering the pokemon's defense and special defense. This is easily reset by simply switching out, but, if you decide not to switch out is also not an issue since these pokemon are not made to be defensively inclined. Mach punch have priority... always handy but adamant here will be your nature to choose!

Hitmonlee@normal gem / steel gem
Ability: Unburden
Nature: Adamant / Careful
Evs: 252 ATT / 252 Sp DEF / 4 HP
Moves:
-Fake out / Bullet punch
-Close combat / Brick break
-Earthquake / Blaze kick
-Rock slide / Stone edge / Pursuit / Thief
Since speed will be doubled after using a priority move, investing Evs in speed or choosing a speed raising nature is useless. Go for adamant if you like more power or careful if you want it bulkier in the special side. (Adamant is better). So fake out, double your speed and then sweep. Close combat is amazing lowering your defenses isn't an issue for hitmonlee, but if you are using careful go with brick break much weaker but reliable and can remove screens. EQ is strong reliable and perfect but blaze kick save you from levitating ghosts. In this particular set I like to use EQ with rock slide or stone edge cz you'll be hitting a lot of things with super effective damage and ground/rock have perfect coverage. You still can, if you used blaze kick, to use thief or pursuit on your last slot to destroy a sweeper or any other pokemon!

Hitmonlee's main weakness is it's Low HP and defense meaning that it will die to any priority physical move or to a stronger faster sweeper!

Countering
Direct Contact-based Abilities, like Flame Body and Cute Charm are useful here.
Any Bug/Flying/Ghost/Poison/Psychic-type with flying or psychic-type moves and is high on defense, attack, and maybe speed like Dragonite, Heracross, Durant, Leavanny, Gliscor, and Charizard. If Trick Room is used, Metagross, Escavalier, Scizor, Golurk, Dusknoir, and Spritomb are also included.
Burn-based attacks and Abilites, like Scald and Will-o-wisp, are useful.

Last edited by sbktdreed; 18th December 2011 at 5:30 AM.
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